These services are available for all small animals, including dogs, cats, rabbits, birds and "small furries."

If your pet is having an operation, they will be admitted between 8am and 9am in the morning. The vast majority of surgeries will go home the same day but more critical operations or animals with conditions requiring post-operative fluids will stay overnight.

Upon admission, your pet will receive a "pre-med" injection which has a calming and relaxing effect, before being settled in a comfortable kennel. We are happy to place bedding or toys from home in the kennel with your pet for the duration of their stay.

All surgeries receive an injection of anti-inflammatory pain relief, even if the operation is relatively minor.If your pet is booked for an anaesthetic, it is important that you withhold food from 8pm the previous evening. (This rule does not apply to rabbits or guinea pigs which should be allowed access to food until admission and should also be provided with a "packed lunch" of their normal food, to receive on waking up).

All pre-operative and post-operative instructions will be discussed with you when booking the operation.We use the safest anaesthetics and your pet will be monitored closely by a veterinary nurse throughout the procedure. The protocols we use are designed to offer a smooth recovery and when we talk to you after the operation is completed, we will be able to book you an evening appointment to collect your pet.

Certain minor operations and X-rays can be performed under sedation rather than general anaesthetic. These sedations can be "reversed" so that the animal is rapidly awake.

We are proud to be one of very few practices in the area to offer Digital X-rays. This is the gold-standard in the industry and offers several advantages to pets undergoing X-rays, when compared with traditional manual developers using dark-room chemicals.

The main benefit is the short time taken for X-rays to be developed (three seconds for digital compared to up to 10 minutes for some manual developers.) This reduces the time your pet must spend under sedation or anaesthetic, particularly if several views are required. Minimising anaesthetic time is always desirable, but particularly so when dealing with an emergency such as a road traffic accident, where rapid assessment of injuries is vital and may be life-saving.

Other advantages include the superior quality of the image produced, ensuring fewer "takes" to achieve the perfect image and reducing the animal’s radiation exposure. Unlike traditional X-rays, the digital X-rays can be emailed to specialists across the globe, should your pet have a rare condition diagnosed.

We also try to be ecologically friendly at St George’s vets, and digital X-rays remove the need for chemical developers, which can be hazardous to the environment